Nature of appointment in service

In Government service, there are three types of the appointment of an employee like permanent, temporary and ad hoc. The nature of the appointment could change by many reasons e.g. length of service, the requirement of employee and number of vacancies. In appointment letter or contract of the employee, the nature of the appointment is specifically laid down. For example, if in an appointment letter the nature of appointment is mention as temporary, to which candidates had given his acceptance. After that employer can terminate him without prior notice and he can’t object as per contract otherwise termination is not malafide.

Permanent Appointment –

Permanent post can be substantive or on probation or on an officiating basis. A substantive appointment to a permanent post in public service confers, normally on the servant so appointed, a substantive right to the post and he becomes entitled to hold a “lien” on the post. It is also elementary as well as settled that a person cannot be appointed substantively to a post over which an employee has an existing lien.
An appointment to a permanent post in Government service on probation means, as in the case of a person appointed by the private employer, that the servant so appointed is taken on the trail. An Appointment for a fixed period, which can be terminated without notice, cannot be held to be a permanent post.

In the absence sanction of a permanent post, the status of permanency cannot be granted.

Temporary Appointment –

An appointment can be temporary in government service. Where the appointment was made on a temporary basis and was continuing as such, merely placing the employee in a scale of pay which is different to the one in which he was temporarily appointed does not make him a permanent employee when the rules required other formalities, e.g. confirmation, etc. to be fulfilled.
It has been held that although a temporary appointee has a right to continue till a regularly selected candidate is available, he cannot claim any preferential treatment.

Ad hoc appointment –

The concept of ad hoc appointment is that in an emergency, regular appointment by conducting examinations and taking interviews, etc. is not possible due to the shortage of time and till such time a regular appointment is made, an ad hoc appointment is made in the exigencies of administration.

The term “Ad hoc” is a Latin term and is defined as “pertaining to or for the sake of a particular case alone” in an international dictionary. From the above meanings, it would appear that whenever an appointment is stated to be an ad hoc appointment, it is a stop gap, fortuitous or purely temporary appointment and is not a regular appointment and does not confer an indefeasible right on employer i.e. they cannot rightfully claim continuity in service.
An ad hoc appointment has also been defined to mean appointment for a special and particular purpose to last for a particular period. If, however, the special purpose or period is not disclosed in the order making an ad hoc appointment, but simply the word ad hoc is mentioned and an appointee, without any hindrance, allowed continuing for years together, then irrespective of the nomenclature of the order alone. It cannot be construed to be an ad hoc appointment but shall be treated as a “regular” appointment.

Other Appointments –

These are the three major categories of appointment in public services. Besides these types of appointments, some other types of appointment are also there like daily wagers appointment, compensatory appointment, compassionate appointment, and Exceptional appointment.